Introduction to the Pipeline
ISDN basics
Pipeline Start Here Guide
Preliminary January 30, 1998
1-7
Integrated digital and analog services
Did you know that you can make or receive voice calls while data calls are in
progress if your ISDN service is provisioned for both voice and data? ISDN
service can be customized. You can choose whether each of your B channels is
available for just data, data or voice, or just voice. In this context, voice means
plain old telephone service (and is actually called POTS). POTS services are
analog instead of digital. Analog service is what your phone, fax, and ordinary
modem use. If you choose to have voice integrated into your ISDN line (which is
the standard), you can make and receive calls by plugging a phone (or two) into
the back of the Pipeline. In fact, you can plug in any analog phone device,
including a fax machine or a modem. For a small office, this gives you one
phone-service account for all your telephone usage, Internet, and corporate dial-
up charges.
Connecting to a switch
When you order ISDN service, you are actually requesting a line from a switch at
your local telephone company’s central office. Switches are in fact computers
that route calls between their source and destination. When you set up your
Pipeline, you need to specify the type of switch used by your ISDN service. The
phone company will tell you what switch type your service uses when the line is
installed.
At the same time, you will be given the telephone numbers for your ISDN B
channels. The telephone company may refer to these as directory numbers. For
most services, there are two B channels, and a directory number is assigned to
each one.
Additionally, in North America there are two Service Profile Identifiers, called
SPIDs (pronounced spids), assigned to each B channel. You need these ID
numbers to enable the Pipeline to connect to the switch. An AutoSPID utility,
included in the Pipeline, tries to guess the SPIDs; however, until SPID formats
are standardized, not all can be guessed correctly, so be sure to have the
information supplied by your telephone company available when configuring the
Pipeline.
